Insider Selling: Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) CAO Sells $33,500.00 in Stock

Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.00, for a total value of $33,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 90,460 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,060,820. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Ajmere Dale also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, August 21st, Ajmere Dale sold 1,406 shares of Block stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.70, for a total transaction of $90,968.20.
• On Tuesday, August 13th, Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of Block stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.88, for a total value of $30,940.00.

Block Stock Up 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE SQ opened at $67.02 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $41.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 87.04, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 2.49. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $64.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $68.03. Block, Inc. has a 12-month low of $38.85 and a 12-month high of $87.52. The company has a current ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.09. Block had a return on equity of 3.77% and a net margin of 3.47%. The company had revenue of $6.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.27 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.40 EPS. Block’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Block, Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC lifted its position in shares of Block by 49.0% during the 4th quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 7,930 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $613,000 after purchasing an additional 2,607 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Ltd. CA lifted its holdings in Block by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Ltd. CA now owns 47,020 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,637,000 after buying an additional 1,627 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Sarl boosted its position in shares of Block by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Sarl now owns 50,436 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,901,000 after acquiring an additional 3,312 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of Block by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 12,513,788 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $967,942,000 after acquiring an additional 212,218 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. raised its position in shares of Block by 11.2% during the 4th quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 20,854 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,613,000 after acquiring an additional 2,101 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on SQ shares. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on Block from $105.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $88.00 target price on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Macquarie restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $100.00 price target on shares of Block in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and issued a $100.00 price target on shares of Block in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Block from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Block presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.31.

About Block

Square, Inc provides payment and point-of-sale solutions in the United States and internationally. The company's commerce ecosystem includes point-of-sale software and hardware that enables sellers to turn mobile and computing devices into payment and point-of-sale solutions. It offers hardware products, including Magstripe reader, which enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Contactless and chip reader that accepts EMV® chip cards and Near Field Communication payments; Chip card reader, which accepts EMV® chip cards and enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Square Stand, which enables an iPad to be used as a payment terminal or full point of sale solution; and Square Register that combines its hardware, point-of-sale software, and payments technology, as well as managed payments solutions.